We went to Oban a week ago. 1.5 hrs in the Auster and an easy day trip versus 12 hours each way by any non-GA method!
Peter wrote:
Got out of bed 7:00.
Left for the airport 9:00.
Departed 10:00.
Landed 12:00. No rush, no queues, no germs.
Walkabout and lunch.
On the boat to Tresco 14:00.
Unbeatable!
I’ll do the same tomorrow:
- get out of bed at 7:00
- leave for the airport at 8:00
- depart at 10:00 (I have something to leave on a way there so I need some buffer)
- land at 12:45
- have lunch at 14:00
- Calvi beach at 15:30 
alioth wrote:
It was revolting. And this was something that didn’t get the air drawn through it!
Which makes you wonder how people’s bodies can clean out their lungs for decades before smoking eventually kills them. A very few people seem to be able to tolerate it indefinitely, for example a man I knew through motorcycling who was previously a very accomplished military pilot who continued to ride motorcycles into his late 80s. I rarely saw him not smoking until he died at about 90 years old. How the heck could lungs tolerate that for 70 years or whatever?
As an aside (I think it’s a good story about Vern) when I (re) started flying in around 2003 he asked me in what type I was learning. When I told him he explained that he had also some Luscombe time…. in the 1930s, about 65 years prior. He also had some great stories about delivering Interstate Cadets from the factory as a part time job to supplement USAF pay, getting lost (on top), then landing on a desert road as a flight of two so the could ask where they were and continue.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Some folks who saw this too stopped smoking right there and then!
About three years ago I bought a Juno 106 (analogue synthesiser, from 1984). After having it a year, the keyboard became intermittent so I stripped the keybed down to clean all the contacts. The previous owner was a smoker, and I’m sure the synth had been gigged with before the pub smoking ban. I used a lot of isopropanol cleaning off the thick layer of tar on the sides/undersides of the keys. It was revolting. And this was something that didn’t get the air drawn through it!
I would not have to. I saw what remained of the outflow valves of our Caravelle when it went to heavy maintenance. Took several days in a special solution to clean it, and we only cleaned them since there were no new ones to be had. Some folks who saw this too stopped smoking right there and then!
Peter wrote:
A friend works in Airbus maintenance and reports how the filters are bunged up with crap.
You should ask him what they looked like back in the days when people were allowed to smoke aboard!
Peter wrote:
Also the figures for filter effectiveness are hugely unconvincing. A friend works in Airbus maintenance and reports how the filters are bunged up with crap.
Is that not the point of a filter?
But obviously effectiveness depends on them being regularly cleaned.
Rwy20 wrote:
AFAIK the air you get from the A/C in an airliner is already filtered, so that is not where the microbes are coming from.
The worst thing about the air in airliners is that it is very dry. When your mucous membranes dry out they become more exposed to bacterian/viral attacks.
Snoopy wrote:
My personal dream would be to drive into a hangar on one side and taxi out the plane on the other
I am actually able to do that now Except for the fact that I would not start the engine in the hangar.
